What It's like to Fly a Solar Plane With a Coffin-Sized Cockpit

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What It's like to Fly a Solar Plane With a Coffin-Sized Cockpit

This month, Solar Impulse 2, the sun-powered airplane that's flying around the world, finally made it to the American mainland. Four days after pilot Bertrand Piccard climbed into the coffin-sized cockpit and took off from Hawaii, he landed at Moffett Field, in California's Bay Area.

WIRED caught up with Piccard and his co-pilot, André Borschberg (they take turns flying) in Silicon Valley. We took a closer look at the plane with the wings of a jumbojet and the weight of a car, including the tightest cockpit we've ever seen—with a toilet built into the seat.

Piccard and Borschberg explain how they stay sane while aloft, why they're doing this, and their hopes for the role of the sun in the future of aviation.